Editor's Notebook September 2024

Craig Mongeau - Editor in Chief - September 2024

In this month's issue, I invited our N.Y.S. Highway & Public Works Expo show manager, Teddy McKeon, to address all of you in this column. Here, without further ado, is the latest news about the upcoming big show:

Every year, right after the N.Y.S. Highway & Public Works Expo concludes, we begin planning for the next one. We talk with vendors and attendees to see how we can improve; we try our best to make those changes for the next show; and we start selling booth space to prior vendors beginning in late February.

We greatly appreciate our loyal customers, but we know that loyalty comes, in part, from your attendance. You make the show successful. We've had superintendents bring their entire crew and busses show up full of people waiting to get into the Expo Center. We've had attendees drive more than three hours to attend. We appreciate the support you've shown us over the past 30 years, and we hope to keep doing this for another 30 and more.

At press time, we are close to being sold out, which is a record for us (typically, we still have a few booths left in late September.) In addition to the show's long-time, consistent exhibitors, we anticipate more than 25 percent will be new exhibitors. Some vendors from 2023 have prior commitments and expressed disappointment that they cannot exhibit in 2024, but they anticipate returning in 2025. We still have a long list of exhibitors who signed up last year but have yet to commit this year, but we only have five booth spaces remaining. We are working diligently with the Fairgrounds to add more booths and to see if we can make other adjustments to accommodate additional exhibitors, if necessary. That said, if you have a favorite vendor or rep and they have not yet committed, please remind them that the show is selling out quickly and they should act now. And also please remember to schedule meetings with exhibitors beforehand.

We are passionate about this show, and we work hard to put on a great one each year for all of you — because you deserve it. We appreciate what you do every day for your towns, villages, cities, counties and residents (as do our exhibitors). You and your crews plow roads, pave them, fill potholes, landscape, trim trees, clean up after storms, repair culverts and so much more — all vital work for a well-functioning community.

We look forward to seeing you in October!

-Teddy McKeon. P